Robbing you Blind
by howfickle
Summary: Adventures with the Serenity crew. Biased around Kaylee and Simon mostly, but not totally. An OC, but he's not the focus. Some of Kaylee's past, with some Inara and Mal drama if you squint. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

"Well hey there, Inara! Have you seen River 'round?" Kaylee was breathing hard as she rushed into the kitchen. Until the, Inara had been snacking on the dried apple slices a client had given her.

"I haven't, but I'll tell you if I-"

"NO CHEATING!" River shrieked with a giggle as she popped up from her hiding space. Her dark hair was sticking up in odd places, charged by the static in the small cabinet she was, only moments ago, curled up it.

"I was not cheating, River. We never said asking was against the rules."

"It was implied. I'm going to need a new spot, away from traitors." River mumbled as she glanced at Inara.

"Don't drag me into this." Inara tried to sound serious, but a smile illuminated her soft face. River ran off, her bare feet making no noise against the cold metal floors. Kaylee sat down next to Inara, taking an apple slice for herself.

"D'you mind?" She asked as she took a bite.

"Of course not." Inara liked that Kaylee and River got along so well. Kaylee had always been young at heart, a trait that suited her well. River, who lost a part of her childhood, needed someone to play with, someone who could see her without judgment. And God knows Simon could use time to relax in quiet, too.

"I fig'er I give River 5 minutes to find herself a good spot, then I'll head out, and find her without any help." Kaylee was confident, even though River almost always bested her at hide and seek.

"… And all I'm saying is we go in there, guns a 'blazing, and we'd be dead before we hit the gorram floor."

"We take the back door and get out 'for they know any better! In-n-out faster than… something fast."

"Or get killed by the Alliance hounds they got guarding all the doors. And while I'd love fer you to entertain us with more of your thrilling poetry, Jayne, I aint aiming to be killed tomorrow."

River, perfectly balanced between two pipes that hung close to the ceiling, wasn't noticed as Jayne and the Captain came strode into the cockpit, Wash tailing close behind, followed by Zoe.

"None of that answered my question: where do I land this thing?" Wash seemed exasperated, from little sleep and all the yelling going on, River figured. She could only see a bit of the window, but that was enough to see the large planet they were orbiting. They would have to land soon; otherwise an Alliance cruiser would find them.

"Take the basement. 'Bout half-mile west from the big tree out front, trap door near the blueberry bush will open to a tunnel, take you straight to the safe, you can land past the hill outside town, quiet enough, no one'll know you were even there 'till they check the safe next day." All four of them looked up towards River, startled, a mix between amazement and frustration on their faces.

"Capt'n?" Wash looked at Mal.

"Best chance we got. Land past the hill, Wash."

"River?" Kaylee was getting bored, seeing as she'd been on the hunt for River for almost half an hour. "Come out now! You've won! I give in!" A squeal of delight echoed from the cockpit followed by almost no sound as River climbed down from her spot.

"C'mon, Kaylee. I need you on this job. Simon! Come get this bundle of crazy, we'll be needin' her, too." Mal strode past Kaylee, knocking on Jayne's door. "Gorram it, Jayne, get out here!"

"She's not a 'Ball of crazy', Mal. She's my sister."

"Call 'er whatever you want, so long as she helps us find that trap door."

They landed not long ago, but Mal and Zoe were still rushing about, preparing for their heist. It was a fairly easy job, but intricate none the less.

"What? Capt'n, what do you need me for?"

"Distraction. There's gonna be someone at the desk, I need you to make some noise so they don't hear us."

Jayne stood with Mal and Kaylee outside the run-down storefront.

"You sure this is it, Mal? It don't look like anywhere I'd keep 10 pounds of un-marked gold."

"That's why you don't have 10 pounds of un-marked gold, Jayne."

"Capt'n?"

"Kaylee?"

"What'm I supposed to do, again?"

"Distract whoever's behind the counter."

"Right. I'm off, see you two when we're 10 pounds of gold richer!"

The store was just as worn and dirty inside than it was outside. A layer of dust covered the floor, but the shelves were clean, and all of the stuff on the shelves looked fairly new. Behind counter was a young man. Kaylee figured she had about fifteen minutes before she needed to start talking him up. So until then, she looked him over, trying to figure out everything she could about him. He was tall, though he slouched, leaning over the counter, flipping though the pages of some worn-out book. His light brown hair hung far too long over his eyes, which bugged Kaylee. She preferred her men more clean-cut. Lost in thought, Kaylee didn't notice the stack of buckets in front of her. At least, not until she ran into them.

"That aught 'ta be enough distraction, Mal." She murmured to herself. The boy behind the counter jumped with a start, and rushed over to help her as she began to pick up the buckets.

"Sorry, I'm a bit clumsy-" She gasped when she looked up, instantly recognizing the face that looked down at her. "RJ?"

She hadn't seen that face since grade 10, at their graduation. RJ had promised his classmates that he was destined for greatness, swore up and down that he'd be the captain of a 'verse famous ship before anyone else amounted to anything. Kaylee never did like him. But, twelve years is a long time, and a familiar face was never something to take for granted.

"Kaylee? Kaylee Fry? I'll be. What're you doin' here on my little rock?"

Kaylee laughed, but quickly came up with something better than "robbing you blind".


	2. Chapter 2

"Right. Kaylee's doing what she needs 'ta, it's our turn now. River, where'd you say that trapdoor is?" Mal and Jayne joined Zoe, Simon, and River at the only blueberry bush in sight.

"Don't"

"What?"

"It's a trap. Explosives rigged to the door." She buried her head in Simon's shoulder, her eyes shut tight.

"What?" Mal wasn't quite sure what to do. They needed to get that gold, they'd made a deal. And Serenity was a few parts short of being safe to fly much longer. But he wasn't about to risk one of his own's life, even if he wasn't sure that girl even knew what she was saying.

"Capt'n? I got some rope here, we could tie it to the door, open it up far away." Zoe un-coiled a length of rope.

"Sounds good, Zoe. Get on that, Jayne, you radio Wash and tell him to be expectin' some noise. Alright, ev'ryone back!" The crew stepped back a good distance, and Zoe pulled the rope.

"I work on a transport ship. We go all across the 'verse" Kaylee smirked a bit, thinking of RJ's promise way back when.

"Wow. I tried doing that, but it just wasn't for me, ya' know." Almost 12 years, and RJ was still as pretentious as ever. "So I stopped here on this little rock, and I've been here since."

"Don't it get boring? I mean, I sure'd be bored outta my mind working in the same shop everyday."

"Well, it ain't so bad. Sure, nothing ever happens her. Ever. But I'm the only shop around, so I get lots of customers. Speaking of, howdy, Ms. Holland!" RJ walked over to help the old lady that walked in. Kaylee closed her eyes and tried to see if she could hear anything from the basement. She wasn't oblivious to the three armed guards trolling the store. One of them was eyeing her, but probably because he'd never seen her before. She gathered that this was a close community.

A close community that would defiantly try to figure out what that loud bang was. Kaylee knew instantly that the crew had run into some difficulties.

The guards all flinched and rushed towards the front door, going to check what the sound was.

"Wait!" Everyone looked at Kaylee, and she blushed, trying to come up with an excuse. "That's- that's my ship. We're havin' some troubles, see, that's why we landed. My crew's workin' real hard to fix it, but they're bound to run into problems." She finished off with her sweetest smile. The guards looked at RJ, looking to see if they could trust the odd stranger.

"Uh… Kaylee? Yeah. Ok, Is there anything I can do to help y'all out? I got some spare parts in the back, if ya want." The guards all shrugged, and went back to their posts.

"Jeez, Mal. What were ya thinking? If I hadn't covered for you, you'd be caught for sure!"

"But, see, you were there, which was the important part. Besides, we got the gold, and now we're far too far away for anyone to follow. We'll be touching down Santo soon, so if 'ya want anything, give Zoe or me some money. We all know Jayne can't be trusted with that stuff." With all the bustle to leave the moon in a hurry, Kaylee hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Mal yet. Now Zoe and Jayne were arming themselves, not wanting to take any chances.

"You-You guys stole from us?"

Kaylee let out a shriek as Mal, Zoe and Jayne pulled their guns on the stow-away. RJ's hair was pulled back from his face and covered by a cap. He had a heavy jacket on, and a bulging canvas bag in his hand. He was shaking, a little scared animal at the end of a hunter's gun.

"RJ!" Kaylee ran to her old ally, motioning for the crew to lower their guns, which none of them did. "What're you doing here? How'd-what were you thinking? Are you crazy?"

"Kaylee, would you kindly tell me what this tah mah duh hwoon dahn is doin' on my ship?"

"And who he is."

"Good point, Zoe. Who is he?" Kaylee sighed and gave RJ a death stare.


End file.
